“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having New Eyes!” Myriad media research studies; whether in the space of TV consumption or Music, have shown one thread in common – the mention of ‘YouTube’ The said paper deals with addressing all that is said and not said about - What is You Tube for its viewers? What drives its widespread mouth-share? What limits its use and what can make it a more value-bearing platform? Meeting a sample of ‘digital’ customers across age-bands; the YouTube enthusiasts, the Facebook diehards, the WhatsApp bhakts, the TV fanatics, the Twitter handlers suggested – YouTube today serves merely as a stop-gap for quick and sporadic entertainment consumption The question however is – what stops this platform from shifting its ecosystem and turn itself into a ‘wholesome entertainment destination’? · What does an Indian viewer look for from his digital entertainment platforms? · Does he seek ‘value’ in entertainment? What defines ‘value’ in entertainment? Our study seem to indicate, while viewers won’t do away from the instantly gratifying entertainment thrills - captive online audiences do merit a degree of engagement which is much more focused and pointed Does this augur for - better quality, higher production values and richer narratives, more sustainable and deeper engagement? ‘Saregama India’ with the backing of an extensive Qualitative Research, seem to have one emphatic response to this question – a BIG YES!

1. “Web Series:
The Natural Born Killers OR
Transformers?”
- A Perspective-
Authors:
Neha Nandurkar – Saregama India
Pravin Nair – Hansa Research Group
For:
Qual360Asia

4. PLAN?
Saregama, a leading music label of
India & Hansa Research Group, a
reputed research organization got
together
Idea being - validate company plans to
foray into the new-age entertainment
avenue : ‘YouTube’
INTENTION?
Seek insights & validation;
CAN ‘Web series/Web movies’ be
the new wave in entertainment
‘value’ system
QUESTION?
The dichotomized path in front of
Saregama India was whether…
…to go with the flow?
To join the bandwagon of ‘User
Generated Content ( UGC)’, the key
motif that runs through most content
on YouTube –The path of least
resistance
…to further its conviction of
‘value’ in the proposition
To choose the path less travelled – the
path in which the company had its
conviction in and come-up with a
production and cost heavy
proposition?

5. Thus, a Qualitative research study was embarked upon
with a Falcon’s eye on deciphering :
Viewer affinity levels for ‘YouTube’, and thereby, arriving
at the optimal content architecture for YouTube….
What therefore, is the road ahead for ‘Content as we
view it’ on YouTube?

7. Foundation of the research and hence the paper
 For remarkable product connect, it is imperative to understand which emotions
are congruent, offer sustainable liaison and create effective boundaries for
consumer from lapsing out
 Through such an understanding, the apt ‘hot buttons’ can be leveraged for
establishing a positive relationship-connect with the consumer which turns
fruitful in the long run too
 In our presumption, presence or absence of consumer loyalty can be rooted to or
be traced to the mental chord of ‘I find value in it, emotionally this brand feels
close to me…I feel ‘mine’ in it”, etc.
 In other words, every offering has an emotion and/or a set of emotions that are
expected to go with it – sometimes it helps to play safe and go along with the
traditional but sometimes Not!
 Therefore, the moot question that stands out for the marketer is – ‘What if I
rebel?’ ‘Will the distinctive value in my content create more waves or will it
rock my boat?!’

8. …contd.
 Thus, towards this presumption, we conducted a Qualitative research study for, ‘decoding
consumer affinity with YouTube; what brings-in the affinity, what is/or may take away
this affinity in the times to come and what can ensure it to sustain
BASE PREMISE
‘Web movies/Web series will be
the new destination as far as
‘value-seeking’ on YouTube goes’
TWO FOCI
Central focus: YouTube – What stops it from being a
wholesome entertainment destination – is it the current
content of Web movies/Web series??’
Peripheral focus: YouTube – the connects & disconnects

10. Sample Coverage
 We restricted our purview to 3 metro cities of India, since the idea was to visit
the opinion-leaders
 Males and Females in the population were covered in the modal age group of 14-
35 yrs., belonging to SEC A households
 ’Digital experts’
(The objective here was to gain a diverse spectrum of perceptions and therefore the
respective profile criteria)

12. Detailing the approach
PREMISE
The premise of our
approach was the concept
of ‘HIGH EMOTIVE
AROUSAL’ CONTENT
• Since the idea was to
focus on whether the
content being consumed
was EVOCATIVE (and
therefore, engaging
enough) in the context of
entertainment
CONSTRUCT
The route adopted to
achieve the above was -
use of Emo wheel from
Robert Plutchik’s classic
‘Wheel of Emotions’
• A tool containing a
range of defined
emotions, which we
used with a fair
judgement of the
‘degree’ that was
aligned with each
emotion – be it
connect or repel
DEVICES
The tactics employed in
doing so were Hansa
research's in-house
methods; Social’ise and
Vox-Pops***
• Whats app interactions,
Facebook /Twitter chats,
One to one interviews
and Peer interactions
(done through VOX
POPs) – none were
spared!
***each of the above stated in brief in the subsequent slides

13. Detailing our basic premise
 EMOTIONAL AROUSAL & EMOTIONAL DISTANCE
 The former tells us how heightened the experience is for the viewer, while…
 The latter tells us how close or far he feels the particular content is
 Emotions and AFFECTIVE evocations are integral to the sentiment of…‘I feel/wish to view’
to build engagement pathways
 In other words, the content should connect at any of the touch-points – be it of – slice-
of-life, emotion-evoking, aspiration, identification etc.
 In context of the paper
 It was insightful to see how content on the same platform was reacted to with such
variety
○ Despite distinctive age-nuances, social and demographic status, psychographic
variables  viewers across articulate the inherent need for ‘value’ in the content

14. A peek into Plutchik’s Emotion Wheel and how it was leveraged for the cause
 Identifies a spectrum of 8 basic emotions from
which branch out further dimensions:
○ joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness,
anticipation, anger and disgust
○ Establishes relationships between these
emotions
 In context of the paper
 It was imperative to understand what
content evoked positive associations and
what content repelled and what encouraged
neutral appeal
○ Through such an incisive understanding,
the hot buttons can then be leveraged
to create stickier bonds with the viewer
 This bond is nothing but what
gets translated in what viewers
call ‘value’ in the content

15. The Viewer and his (ec)centricities..
 A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A VIEWER
 We sat with UGC & Web Series Loyalists, observed their viewing styles and
patterns, noted their affinities, neutralities & revulsions w.r.t the content on
YouTube
 THE ‘EMOTION’ GAUGE
 Post the assessment, we introduced the MOOD BOARDS we had designed,
inspired by Plutchik’s Emo Wheel - which spelt out not only the core
emotions of the EMO WHEEL but also its many facets
 Respondents were asked to associate the affinities, neutralities, excitements
& revulsions to particular moods, emotions in the mood board in conjunction
with their viewed content
 The ‘non-verbals’ and ‘verbals’ were both gauged to map the key evocations
to the particular affinities or lack of them (as the case may be)

16. In brief the in-house methods and what they yielded
Affords anonymity and privacy
We had closed groups/communities moderated by the
researcher, thus responses not getting affected by any group
dynamics or physical settings
No specific timings during the day, respondent could log in and
respond at his convenience
‘Social’ise
An expedition customized to the needs of the study
Met TG at the point of interaction with the category
(YouTube)
Ended with a visit to respondents’ homes and/or usual
hangout joints
As this doesn’t depend on the memory of the respondent, the
information obtained helped in developing strong hypothesis
about WHO they are… what they consume etc.
@College canteen
@Cafe
Vox-Pops

17. All of the above led to decoding
of…..

18. YouTube - UGC
YouTube – concept
of web-movies,
web-series
What attracted
What engaged
What wowed
What repelled
What disconnected
What bored
What alienated
What forged affinity
The ‘volume game’? The ‘value game’?
The YouTube terrain…

19. The Mirror ‘dominantly, as of today’ - excerpts from the consumer speak
Time-pass,
Filler
Short videos
on all topics
Latest & hot in
music and
movies, but
that’s it!
“YouTube has these light videos…they
might not make sense but they are
time pass when you want to kill time!”
“….it no doubt is my
information source for what is
hot! but can’t keep watching
the same stuff again and
again”
“it is a good time pass while
waiting at the bus stand,
waiting for children outside
their school…”

20. The Not So Obvious quotes that raised our antennae!
Just because they are the most
viewed doesn’t make them for
me!...what’s in it for
me?! I ask that question for
most videos on YouTube….
I think the new web series ‘Perfect
Roommates’ is so real and show the youth
in such a believable light They are not
just made…someone took efforts to
know ‘us’ and what we like
Web series is to YouTube
what FB was to
Orkut..Updated and a sexy
makeover
These quotes and many more, without any reservations, make a strong case for ‘evolving or
transforming’ the content and add some ‘distinctiveness of its own’ to YouTube

21. Certain age-specific nuances – having an interplay with how YouTube was
consumed
We tried to dig-deep
into this ‘fascination’
for UGC and rather
found some
‘operational’ reasons
for the affinity
• Limitation of personal
handsets and data
connectivity
• Limited attention
spans
• BUT – is what UGC
gives irreplaceable?
• CAN that not be
replicated by web-
series/movies?
14-16 yrs.
 affinity to UGC
content highest
Seek content that is
increasingly mature in
lines of being ‘censored’
and slice of life
• Hence, may not have
any ‘loyalty’ towards
YouTube content per
se today, but the list
of favorites on TV
certainly promise
strong in-roads for
the former
18-24 yrs.
 ones with the
‘rebel’ streak
Seeking content that is
fresh & relevant
Forms the largest
viewing base and
migration from TV to
YouTube has already
begun
27-35 yrs.
 ‘looking’ for
content that feels
‘me’

22. Web Series – some un-webbed truths in the course of research
 Constant satiation for the instant gratification generation
 This content has shown the free-will to play with the ‘duration’; from 15
minutes to 50!
 This makes them the crunchy snacks, as opposed to melodramatic sagas
which are indigestible
 Sporadic ingestion intervals add to the talking points or creates intrigue around
this content
 This makes one want to be a part of this ‘club’ – inducing high FOMO
○ “Nobody wants to show that they don’t know what web series is about..
It makes them appear either outdated or boring”
 Zero censorship is ‘cool’
 “Discussion on anything related to sex is still taboo, but here I can be myself”

23. …contd.
 The tonality of this content adheres to relevant causes (without dramatizing
them/sounding preachy) and uses humor as sub text
 They are hence the new markers of the morphing times and identities
 Brands can connect directly without the rif-raff of advertising breaks &
distractions
 “ TATA TIAGO makes a constant appearance in the show “Tripling” which is
about a road trip that becomes the reason for three siblings to come to terms
with their dysfunctional lives”

24. The Naked TRUTH from all our data mining and analysis
Highly saturated
content = Dull
Jack image
So it needs to
MOVE….
YouTubePlus
YouTube2.0
YouTubeNxt
YouTube has a change agent in the form
of Web series – novel & innovative
Volume aggregator value differentiatorto

26. …and what Emerged?
 Interesting nuances of how different slices of content evoked different emotions
 UGC content evoked a ‘non arousal emotive state’
○ Evocations that came to the fore - serenity, acceptance, interest, cosines,
plain fun – a clear lack of any distinct emotional registers
 While for WEB SERIES viewers, we realized that the emotional vocabulary was
flush with “high excitement/arousal/intrigue”- evocations were thrill, awe,
submission, ecstasy, grief, disgust
 Hence, Web Series emerged as a more sustainable & engaging content platform
(courtesy higher memorability or take back value) vs. UGC
EMOTIONAL PROXIMITY
HIGH LOW
EMOTIONAL AROUSAL
ENGAGEMENT ENGAGEMENT

27. Therefore….
A case gets made to reinvent
and evolve….
Content has to evoke and emote
Content has to involve and engage

28. Implications for MR industry, Marketing, Audience
 The process was rooted and realistic – as it used the visual representation and list of
qualifying adjectives w.r.t. emotions help in understanding and aligning emotions
across content variety with more accuracy and clarity
 The process and output revealed a relevant route to deriving cues for marketing
communication
 While FMCG advertising is still rooted, largely in the mainline/TV space, there is a
huge potential for lifestyle brands to explore short movie/ web episode formats as
the route to capture consumer attention
 Captive audiences online merit a degree of engagement which is much more
focused and pointed
 The use of finite, consumable web formats with episodic hooks, low entry and exit
barriers, is further bolstered by the direct availability of audiences which are both
online savvy and lifestyle rich
 This represents the proverbial ‘cheese’ for the nice/lifestyle marketers who do not
have to go scouting for their target- he is just a click away, so they just need to
spin their web!
 With the proposed content – are we moving from momentary entertainment to a
more evolved, lasting and sustained content?

29. To summate - a thought to be reckoned with
“Indian customer is as much a value seeker as any of her
counterparts abroad. The only difference is that India is an
extremely heterogeneous society, culturally and
financially…and this means that the definition of value
varies dramatically across social segments…And for
marketing guys, to identify the rational logic that needs to
be given to the customer, is the key to building the ‘value’ in
the proposition..
…what else defines the behavior of a customer who pays
TWO times more for DTH services than he has to pay for
cable in spite of getting the same channels or pays THREE
times the ticket price at a Multiplex than at a single screen
hall for the same movie...These categories have got
their ‘value’ story right! get the value definition
right, and customer will join you and pay!”
- Mr. Vikram Mehra, MD Saregama India